> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://zenorent.com/docs/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Budgeting > Forward-looking cash-flow forecasting that reads actuals straight from your ledger. Budgeting is where you plan what you expect to spend and earn, and watch cash project forward week by week. You enter forecasts; Zeno reads the matching actuals from your books and replaces each forecast with the real number as transactions post. There's nothing to reconcile — the forecast and the actual sit against the same ledger every other module writes to. Budgeting is a module you turn on per organization. Once enabled, it appears as its own mode in the top navigation. ## Sidebar | Item | What it's for | | - | - | | **Cash Flow** | The projection grid — accounts down, periods across, cash on top | | **Forecasts** | Every planned inflow and outflow — add, edit, and delete | | **Suggestions** | Recurring patterns Zeno found in your ledger, ready to accept as forecasts | | **Templates** | Recurring patterns that generate forecasts | | **Debts** | Loans and cards with a payoff schedule you can push into the projection | ## Reading the cash flow grid The grid is the home screen. Accounts run down the rows, grouped into Income, COGS, Gross Profit, Expenses, and Balance-Sheet Activity, with Net Cash Flow at the bottom. Periods run across the columns, and the **Starting Cash** and **Ending Cash** cards sit on top. Each cell shows a forecast and an actual side by side. Where the ledger has booked activity, the actual stands in; where it hasn't, the forecast carries forward. The current period sits centered in the window, so you see recent history to the left and your projection to the right. Switch the period length with the **Weekly**, **Monthly**, **Quarterly**, and **Annual** toggle. Use the prev/next arrows or the period pills to move the window, and the period-count selector to widen or narrow it. **Hide Empty** drops rows with no forecast and no actual. **To see what's behind a cell**, click it. The drilldown opens with two tabs: **Actuals** lists the individual ledger transactions that hit that account in that period; **Forecasts** lists the planned items. You can add or edit a forecast without leaving the modal. Filter the whole grid to one cost center — a property, project, job, or budget entity — with the cost-center filter. **Export** downloads the full grid as CSV — every period, not just the visible window. ## Creating a forecast A forecast is one planned transaction: an account, a date, an amount, and whether it's income or an expense. Open **Forecasts** and click to add one. Pick the GL account, the cash account it's paid from, the date, and the amount. Keep each forecast to the smallest real thing — *"3 airline tickets to the DC training"*, not *"July travel"*. Specific forecasts match actuals cleanly and read better in the drilldown. The cash account matters: an expense paid from a bank account reduces projected cash in its period, while one charged to a credit card is tracked as a commitment and doesn't move cash until you pay the card. This keeps the projection honest about what's actually in the bank. Set a **necessity** (low, normal, high) to record how essential an expense is, and a **confidence** level for how sure you are of an amount. Both travel with the forecast for context. ## Setting up recurring templates A template generates forecasts on a schedule, so you enter rent, payroll, or a retainer once instead of twelve times. Open **Templates** and create one with an account, an amount, and a frequency — weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annual. Set the interval (every 2 weeks), pin a day of the month or week, and add an escalation percentage to bump the amount each year for inflation or a contract step-up. **To generate forecasts**, open a template and use the generate panel. Set **From** and **Through**, click **Preview** to see the count, then click **Create *N* forecasts**. Generating is safe to repeat — Zeno skips any date the template already produced, so you won't get duplicates. ## Accepting suggestions **Suggestions** reads your ledger for spending and income that repeats, and offers each pattern as a set of forecasts you can take or leave. Use it to fill a new budget instead of typing twelve months of rent by hand. Set **History** — how far back to look for patterns — and **Project through**, then scan. Each detected stream shows the account, the amount, how often it recurs, and a confidence level from Very low to Very high. Click **Accept *N*** to create that stream's forecasts, or **Dismiss** to drop it. Streams already covered by existing forecasts show as **Added**. ## Planning debt payoff **Debts** holds the loans, cards, and notes you're paying down. Add each one with its balance, APR, and minimum payment. Set a **Total monthly payment** across all debts, pick a **Strategy**, and set the start month and horizon. Zeno returns a month-by-month payoff schedule with the payoff date, total interest, and interest saved against minimums-only. The strategies: * **Snowball (lowest balance first)** — clears small debts early for momentum * **Avalanche (highest APR first)** — the least total interest * **Entered order** — pay them down in the order you listed them * **No snowball (minimums only)** — the baseline you're comparing against * **Custom (highest first)** and **Custom (lowest first)** — order by your own priority field ## Cost centers Every forecast can scope to a cost center, so budgets line up with how the rest of Zeno is organized. For a property-management or development org, that's an existing property, project, or job. For an org without those, create **budget entities** — programs, departments, or grants — and scope forecasts to them. The cash flow grid and variance both filter by the same dimension. This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.